Sanctuary
by Hawki
Summary: Segaverse Oneshot: Thanks to the Time Eater, Sonic had been cast back in time, meeting his "classic" self and visiting old locations. Such locations included Sky Sanctuary. And faced with the lost paradise, Sonic...and Knuckles found it difficult to leave


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**Sanctuary**

"Didn't think I'd ever be back here again."

"Yeah, well...I didn't ever think the world would lose its colour and time would be devoured either."

It was a harmless jab, and luckily Knuckles realized it. Sonic knew that this time period was ripe for poking fun at his nemesis turned rival turned friend, that Sky Sanctuary was right after Eggman showed his true colours in the Hidden Palace. Still, so far he'd declined to do so. Knuckles's gullibility (still strong after all these years) hadn't anything to do with the Time Eater and besides, there was the risk that such jabs could turn into a war of words. And in that department, the fastest thing alive knew that while he wasn't outnumbered, he was certainly outgunned.

"Yeah! Take that you bucket of bolts!"

Case in point...

The wonders of youth, Knuckles had called it, as the blue hedgehog explained how and why another blue hedgehog was right beside him when he rescued the echidna from this time stream. He'd let his younger self run free over Sky Sanctuary, supposedly to balance the hero dynamic between them, but in reality to reflect on the wonders of seeing your younger self in action. Wonders that primarily revolved around the question of "was I really that short and dumpy?"

"Missed, bolt brain!"

_And did I really talk that much? _the hedgehog wondered, watching as yet another egg robo bit the bullet. _I mean, it's not as if I was a 2D silent character back then, but I thought my words were less...less..._

"Way past cool!"

_...painful?_

Well, maybe it was a matter of context. Having been forced to jump from the Green Hills to the Chemical Plant to Sky Sanctuary, "Classic Sonic" hadn't undergone the same development his future self had. Maybe all that was needed was time...as short as that was right now.

"So..." Knuckles said eventually, breaking his friend's train of thought. "Once this is all over...do you think we'll remember any of this?"

"Hmm?"

"The whole time travel thing," the Guardian said, turning Sonic's attention from his younger self to an echidna closer to his age (and thankfully beyond the phase of "get off my island!"). "Suppose we defeat the Time Eater...what then? Is the timeline restored to its original form? Does an altered timeline take its place? Or are we already out of time?"

Sonic remained silent. He didn't know, Tails didn't know, and somehow, he'd reached the stage of his life where his ego no longer had a problem making that clear. He'd travelled through time before on the Miracle Planet, but that was a simple problem, relatively speaking. Fix errors in the past inflicted by Robotnik, and the future would turn from technological hell to ecological heaven. Cause and effect. Here though, there was no clear cause bar the Time Eater itself, and no discernable effects bar the breakdown of time itself. It gave him a headache just thinking about it.

Maybe it was from seeing his younger self in action, but Sonic felt old. Not physically thankfully, but mentally. Once, as he'd seen himself, life was simple. Eggman attacks South Island, fight his badniks, collect the Chaos Emeralds and wait for the cycle to repeat itself. Nowadays, his latest adventures had been centred on everything from dark and light gods from within the core of the Earth and aliens capable of boosting his abilities. And now as he thought about it, suppose all the old experiences were lost into time...would his new experiences play out the same way? Heck, would he even get to them? Chaos, Shadow, Black Arms...how much history was being changed right now? How much would be preserved?

It was all too much. He needed to get moving again.

"I should go," the hedgehog said eventually. "Classic Sonic might need my help."

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "Classic Sonic?"

"Knux, if you've got a better name, I'd be glad to hear it," Modern Sonic said. "And don't say past Sonic. Past and present are all too relative right now."

"And the help?"

"Well, given the rate at which he's smashing egg robos, it's only a matter of time until Mecha Sonic turns up. And since we skipped out on Silver Sonic...well, experience and all that."

"Fine. I'll stay here."

The hedgehog got ready to zoom off, but hesitated. Something was bothering his friend, and it wasn't the prospect of being in what was arguably his most humiliating time period. Sonic knew that Knuckles had faced Mecha Sonic himself as well (with the robot in super form no less), but somehow he doubted that was the issue either.

"Knux...you okay?"

"Yeah...fine."

"You're a hopeless liar, you know."

The echidna smirked. "You know me too well."

Indeed, the hedgehog reflected. Back in the day, he could have called the echidna whatever he liked, and thought of him whatever he wanted, given how little he knew about the "anteater." Now though...well, times had changed. Or moved on. And only recently they were celebrating that fact with his birthday.

"This...is Sky Sanctuary..." the Guardian said slowly. "It's been years since I was last here."

"Well, of course you were," Sonic interjected. "The place was destroyed, remember? The Death Egg and Mecha Sonic-..."

"Exactly. Which is why I'll never get a chance to see it again."

Sonic followed Knuckles's gaze over the ruins above Angel Island. Ruins destined to be wrecked by the Death Egg's ascent (which he and Tails had barely managed to escape from, having run up to its very peek before boarding the station) and the Guardian's battle with Mecha Sonic, the explosion generated by the super-charged robot finishing off the rest of the ruins.

"Knux, if you're thinking..."

"I know, I know," Knuckles said sadly. "Preserving history and all that. Sky Sanctuary has to be destroyed...again."

"Like a lot of things..." Sonic murmured, a quick list running through his mind. Station Square at the hands of Chaos, half of the moon by the Eclipse Cannon, practically every city in the United Federation in the Black Arms invasion...all tragedies that foresight could have averted, if he'd had future knowledge of the events. He half wondered if the Time Eater's goal was to put him through nothing more than torment. Knowledge that either his past was lost, or that he had to let such tragedies unfold again. Right before his eyes.

And before long, Knuckles would be forced to watch his own personal failure. Angel Island had recovered from Robotnik's attempted takeover. Sky Sanctuary hadn't.

With a nod of understanding, Sonic ran off to help his younger self.

His mind could no longer provide sanctuary for his emotions.

* * *

_A/N_

_Perhaps obvious, but I'll clarify regardless that the idea for this stemmed from what's been revealed of the storyline for _Sonic Generations _and one of the more recent trailers, showing that Sky Sanctuary will be featured as a playable level. My interpretation of _Sonic and Knuckles _is that the zone was essentially destroyed, as per Sonic (and Tails if your game is linked to STH3) running up the crumbling tower and Knuckles's battle with Super Mecha Sonic apparently rendering him in a position where he has to be saved by the Tornado. Anyway, probably overanalyzing the time travel aspect, but came up with this as a result._


End file.
